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Who owns the water service line in Seattle, WA

Which part of the pipe is yours

  • Water service line

    Yours from your property line to your building — if certain conditions are met

    Why, and what to do
  • Sewer lateral

    Yours all the way to the main under the road

    Why, and what to do
your buildingproperty linesidewalkstreetmain
The thick length is yours. A dashed marker means the position depends on your property — see below.

If something’s wrong

Who to call first about the water service line

The answer here has conditions, so it is not repeated in brief. Read who to call first, in full or look up your address.

Who is responsible for which part

Who to call first

Seattle Public Utilities' Operations Response Center

When to call: urgent drinking water issues, including water pipe breaks or leaks

(206) 386-1800

Answered: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Source

Seattle lays the service pipe from its main to the property line and keeps that City connection; the owner maintains the private pipe from the end of the City service into the property. Section 21.04.050 provides that "The City connection, which shall include a union placed at the end of pipe, and a stopcock placed within the curbline, shall be maintained by and kept within the exclusive control of the City." This is Seattle's own statement.

Seattle
The City connection: a service pipe the code describes as "extending at right angles from the main to the property line", with a union at the end of the pipe and a stopcock within the curbline.
The property owner
The private pipe from the end of the City service. Section 21.04.090 provides that "owners shall maintain their private pipes from the end of the City service to and into their property", and section 21.04.310 keeps the service pipes and connections within private premises in repair at the expense of the owner or lessee.

What decides which applies

The City's connection normally ends at a union at the property line. Where the union sits short of the property line, section 21.04.060 provides that "In no case shall the City be required to maintain or repair any portion of the service connection between the union and property line." Ask Seattle Public Utilities where your union is before paying for work in the street. Seattle Public Utilities' water service area, as the Washington State Department of Health maps it, covers about 98% of Seattle's land, and this answer applies inside that area. Check the name on your water bill.

Sources

Seattle Municipal Code section 21.04.050, Connection

Also quoted:

Checked

What the pipe is made of

Washington publishes no statewide inventory of what service lines are made of. Each water system filed its own with the State, and federal rules require the utility to make it public, so the utility is the place to ask what is recorded for this address.

Seattle: official site

What this page cannot tell you

  • This describes who is responsible for which part of the pipe. It is not a record of what your own service line is made of.
  • This answer applies inside the area the State maps for Seattle's own water system, which does not follow the city limits: some addresses in the city are served by another supplier, and some outside it are served by the city. An address search checks which side an address is on.
  • This authority's service line inventory - the record of which pipes are lead, and where - has not been matched here yet. Ask the utility for yours.
Seattle: official site

Your other pipe: the sewer lateral

For the sewer lateral, Seattle gives the opposite answer to the one above:

In Seattle the side sewer - the private pipe from the building to the public main - belongs to the owner or occupant, in the street as well as on the lot, up to but not including the tee, wye or connection on the main. Section 21.16.190 of the Seattle Municipal Code provides that "Side sewers, whether located in a public or private place, shall be owned, installed, operated, and maintained by the owner or occupant of the property or premises served."

Your sewer lateral is yours to the main; your water line stops being yours at the property line.

Same trench, separate authorities, decided separately.

Who pays for the sewer lateral in Seattle, WA

Look up a specific address

This page describes what applies to properties in Seattle in general. To see which authorities serve one address, and what records exist for it, search for it.

Search for an address